Indexing digitized speech with words represented in the digitized speech

• US 9,123,337 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2014
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Cross, Charles W., Jania, Frank L.
• Primary Examiner(s): He, Jialong
• Application Number:
  US14/204,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20140278422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 539 Days
• Field of Search: 704/248, 704/251, 704/253, 704/270
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/19 Grammatical context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word sequence rules
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/193 Formal grammars, e.g. finite state automata, context free grammars or word networks
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/197 Probabilistic grammars, e.g. word n-grams
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/06 Transformation of speech into a non-audible representation, e.g. speech visualisation or speech processing for tactile aids G10L15/26 takes precedence

Abstract

Indexing digitized speech with words represented in the digitized speech, with a multimodal digital audio editor operating on a multimodal device supporting modes of user interaction, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal digital audio editor operatively coupled to an ASR engine, including providing by the multimodal digital audio editor to the ASR engine digitized speech for recognition; receiving in the multimodal digital audio editor from the ASR engine recognized user speech including a recognized word, also including information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word begins; and inserting by the multimodal digital audio editor the recognized word, in association with the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word begins, into a speech recognition grammar, the speech recognition grammar voice enabling user interface commands of the multimodal digital audio editor.

Claims

1. A method for use in a computer system comprising an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine, the method comprising:

receiving recognized speech that the ASR engine generated from digitized speech, the recognized speech comprising a recognized word and information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears;

inserting the recognized word into a speech recognition grammar; and

inserting into the speech recognition grammar in association with the recognized word, the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising visually displaying the digitized speech with the recognized word as an index of where in the digitized speech the representation of the recognized word appears.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising recognizing, by the ASR engine, the recognized word in the digitized speech and identifying information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears further comprises:

organizing the digitized speech in sequential sets of time domain amplitude samples grouped in frames, each frame characterized in sequence by a unique and cardinal frame identification number, each frame containing the same number of time domain amplitude samples;

converting the digitized speech containing the recognized word to the frequency domain beginning with one of the frames of time domain amplitude samples; and

deriving an index value indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears by multiplying the one of the frame identification numbers by the number of amplitude samples in each frame.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the recognized word into a speech recognition grammar further comprises associating the recognized word, as a non-optional terminal element in the speech recognition grammar, with a word representing a user interface command of the digital audio editor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserting the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears comprises inserting the information as part of a non-optional terminal grammar element.

7. A computer system, operatively coupled to an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine, the computer system comprising:

at least one computer processor; and

at least one computer memory operatively coupled to the at least one computer processor,

the at least one computer processor being programmed, via instructions stored on the at least one computer memory, to;

receive recognized speech that the ASR engine generated from digitized speech, the recognized speech comprising a recognized word and information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears;

insert the recognized word into a speech recognition grammar; and

insert into the speech recognition grammar in association with the recognized word, the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computer processor is programmed to visually display the digitized speech with the recognized word as an index of where in the digitized speech the representation of the recognized word appears.

9. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computer processor is programmed to recognize, by the ASR engine, the recognized word in the digitized speech and identify information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein identifying the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears further comprises:

organizing the digitized speech in sequential sets of time domain amplitude samples grouped in frames, each frame characterized in sequence by a unique and cardinal frame identification number, each frame containing the same number of time domain amplitude samples;

converting the digitized speech containing the recognized word to the frequency domain beginning with one of the frames of time domain amplitude samples; and

deriving an index value indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears by multiplying the one of the frame identification numbers by the number of amplitude samples in each frame.

11. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computer processor is programmed to insert the word into a speech recognition grammar by associating the recognized word, as a non-optional terminal element in the speech recognition grammar, with a word representing a user interface command of the digital audio editor.

12. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computer processor is programmed to insert, into the grammar as part of a non-optional terminal grammar element, the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

13. A computer-readable, recordable device having instructions encoded thereon which, when executed in a system comprising an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine, perform a method comprising:

receiving recognized speech that the ASR engine generated from digitized speech, the recognized speech comprising a recognized word and information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears;

inserting the recognized word into a speech recognition grammar; and

inserting into the speech recognition grammar in association with the recognized word, the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

14. The computer-readable, recordable device of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises visually displaying the digitized speech with the recognized word as an index of where in the digitized speech the representation of the recognized word appears.

15. The computer-readable, recordable device of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises recognizing, by the ASR engine, the recognized word in the digitized speech and identifying information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears.

16. The computer-readable, recordable device of claim 15, wherein identifying the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears further comprises:

organizing the digitized speech in sequential sets of time domain amplitude samples grouped in frames, each frame characterized in sequence by a unique and cardinal frame identification number, each frame containing the same number of time domain amplitude samples;

converting the digitized speech containing the recognized word to the frequency domain beginning with one of the frames of time domain amplitude samples; and

deriving an index value indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears by multiplying the one of the frame identification numbers by the number of amplitude samples in each frame.

17. The computer-readable, recordable device of claim 13, wherein inserting the recognized word into a speech recognition grammar further comprises associating the recognized word, as a non-optional terminal element in the speech recognition grammar, with a word representing a user interface command of the digital audio editor.

18. The computer-readable, recordable device of claim 13, wherein the inserting the information indicating where, in the digitized speech, representation of the recognized word appears comprises inserting the information as part of a non-optional terminal grammar element.